


(Wise Men Say) Only Fools Rush In

by becreativeace (JR_Granger)



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Blow Jobs, Bottom Charles, Bottom Erik, Canon Jewish Character, Charles Xavier has a Ph.D in Adorable, Charles You Slut, Clueless Charles, Erik You Slut, Erik is a Sweetheart, M/M, Rimming, Smitten Erik, Telepathic Bond, Top Charles, Top Erik, Versatile Charles, Versatile Erik, don't post on other sites, seriously he's so thick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-10-20 03:24:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20668520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JR_Granger/pseuds/becreativeace
Summary: After reading a fic where Erik and Charles are super sluts, meet at what is presumably Raven and Emma's engagement party, and end up sleeping together, I made the following comment and just inspired myself."They start casually texting each other throughout the day, maybe while they’re bored or frustrated at work, and start out meeting up and sleeping together semi-frequently. And eventually they accidentally start dating without noticing it at first, not until Raven and Emma get them alone and are like “wtf you two super sluts are actually dating??” And at first they deny, but then they’re both like “holy shit, we are!” And they meet back at one of their places and they don’t have to say anything, they just look at each other and come together immediately, kissing passionately and ~making love~. In the middle of it they realise that’s what they’ve been doing for a long time now and they confess their love to each other and they live happily ever after because they deserve all the good in the world."





	(Wise Men Say) Only Fools Rush In

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Call Me](https://archiveofourown.org/works/319961) by [orphan_account](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account). 

> Apologies if anyone is out of character; this is my first time writing for this fandom. Also let me know if I got anything wrong about modern Jewish practices. Unbeta'd. 
> 
> Title from "Can't Help Falling in Love"

**Save me from these imbeciles**, the text message reads when Charles finally gets the chance to take a look at his phone after back-to-back appointments with students. It makes him smile. This is the first he’s heard from Erik since the morning after Raven and Emma’s engagement party. It’s a pleasant surprise. He’s been so swamped with grading and advising that he’s been getting home late and falling straight into bed. He’s not sure what Erik does, but he figured the situation had been similar for him.

Shaking his head to refocus, Charles types out a response. **I could do with some saving myself. Most of the time I love my job, and my students, but sometimes I just want to throttle them for putting everything off to the last minute and expecting me to hold their hand. Especially when it’s my graduate students.**

After he hits send, another knock sounds from his open doorway. Charles takes a slow, deep breath before pasting a hopefully sincere enough smile on his face and inviting in the next student taking advantage of his open office hours. The next sixty minutes are long ones, as another one of his graduate level students attempts to make a case for a thesis extension. What makes it worse are the multiple vibrations that come from his phone where he has it laying upside down on the desk next to his open laptop. He’s about ready to either make the student leave with a thought or cast an illusion so that he can stop listening in the totally inane reasoning that he was going to reject before they even opened their mouth. But then finally, _finally _his office hours end, the student has a class to get to, and he doesn’t have to mess with a student’s perception in a moment of desperation.

Once the student has scurried down the hall, Charles shuts down his laptop, grabs his jacket and scarf, and heads out toward subway station, looking down at the phone in his hand. Multiple notifications from Erik light up his lock screen. Shaking his head at the rapid fire texts, Charles swipes through the turnstile and makes it onto his train just before it leaves the station, grabbing a blessedly empty seat before he opens them up.

**5:14pm : Reason five thousand why I didn’t go into teaching.**

**5:14pm : I did briefly consider it, but then I remembered that I hate people.**

**5:15pm : So of course I decided to go into engineering and work for Stark, who is a literal man-child that can never make up his mind what he wants, constantly making me reconfigure plans and come in at odd hours to reform a piece that only I can manipulate, when it could wait until the morning.**

**5:15pm : Gott, I really need to get out of here before I get arrested for murder. Because I am going to mess with Stark’s arc reactor if he doesn’t leave me alone.**

**5:16pm : Meet for drinks at 6?**

**5:16pm : You do you have to work late today?**

**5:16pm : Actually, scratch that, I’m starving.**

**5:16pm : How about we grab some burgers or something?**

**5:16pm : Or we can decompress a little bit first. **

**5:17pm : I wouldn’t say no to a blowjob right now.**

**5:17pm : Giving or receiving.**

**5:20pm : You’re with another idiot student now, aren’t you?**

**5:20pm : Please tell me you get off soon.**

**5:20pm : Because I really need to get off now.**

**5:20pm : Thinking about your cock in my mouth.**

**5:20pm : My fingers in your ass.**

**5:20pm : Just grazing your prostate.**

**5:21pm : Fuck, Charles, I need you so bad right now.**

**5:25pm : I sure as hell hope you give off work soon because I’m headed to your place right now.**

**5:26pm : Charles**

Charles is breathing heavily, hoping to whatever gods there are that his jacket is properly covering the erection he is definitely sporting now. Swallowing thickly, he curses Erik and the two more stops before the train reaches the station a block from his flat. He closes eyes and breathes deeply, willing away the hardon before he responds.

**I’m on the train now. One more stop before mine. You better be ready to live up to those promises or I’ll make you pay for this.**

Stumbling into the apartment, Charles slams Erik back against the door as it shuts, swallowing the groan Erik lets out at the impact. Sloppily licking into Erik’s mouth, Charles tugs Erik’s shirt out of his trousers and, too impatient to be careful, tugs the buttons loose so he can push the shirt and blazer off Erik’s shoulders at the same time.

“A little overeager there, Charles?” Erik mutters against his lips, the smirk clear in his voice as he starts unbuttoning Charles’ shirt with considerably more care.

“Shut up,” Charles growls, biting Erik’s bottom lip sharply, “and gets those trousers undone already.”

“Mine or yours?” Erik retorts, even as both of their zippers lower and clasps undo.

“God, you’re talking way too much today,” Charles groans dramatically at the ceiling, throwing his head back.

Erik takes this as an opportunity to start biting at Charles’ neck, shoving off his shirt. His hands slide down Charles’ back and down his pants, pushing them off with his trousers, using the metal to pull them down the rest of the way. As Charles steps out of them and his toes off his shoes and socks, Erik pulls back to take off his own. By the time he’s done undressing and standing back up, Erik is crowding his space. Refusing to back up, Charles stays where he is as Erik recaptures his mouth, his hands sliding down Charles’ waist and around to his arse. There they stop to give a squeeze, making Charles moan around Erik’s tongue, nipping it and making Erik groan in return, as Charles arches into him. Seemingly in retaliation, Erik’s hands travel down further under Charles’ arse and lift, forcing Charles to wrap his legs around Erik’s waist and his arms around his shoulders.

While Charles takes the opportunity to use the new height advantage, the hands he has buried in Erik’s hair pulling his head back, Erik walks them back to Charles’ bedroom. Charles tugs at the hair between his fingers and gets blasted with a fresh wave of arousal and hungry possession projected from Erik. Charles has to break off the kiss with a gasp. Before he has the chance to try to catch his breath, Erik drops forward onto the bed, forcing the rest of the air out of Charles’ lungs from the impact on both sides.

Despite how arousing, and oddly comfortingly, it is to be trapped beneath Erik’s weight, Charles has other plans. So once he’s got some of his breath back, Charles uses the grip he’s still got on Erik to flip their positions. He smirks down at Erik, balancing himself on his forearms and grinding their erections together.

“Fuck,” Erik grunts, arching beneath him as he loudly projects how much that move aroused him.

Taking a cue from Erik’s scattered thoughts, Charles takes ahold of Erik’s wrists and directs them up to his metal headboard. “Shackle your wrists up here and don’t release yourself until I say.”

The keen Erik lets out at that order goes straight to Charles’ cock, making him impossibly harder as he watches a couple iron bars twine around Erik’s wrists. It’s an intoxicating feeling, knowing he’s reduced someone like Erik to this.

“Beautiful,” Charles murmurs into his ear, nipping at it before making his way slowly down Erik’s body, licking and nipping along the way. He pays particular attention to Erik’s nipples, remembering from last time just how sensitive they are. He’s rewarded with Erik arching up into him, one of his impossibly long, graceful legs wrapping around one of Charles’, the other foot giving him leverage.

“Charles,” Erik groans, “stop being a fucking tease and get on with it already.” His impatience twines with the arousal, sharpening the pleasure.

Normally, Charles would tell him, “Patience, darling,” but he’s really starting to feel the urgency himself. So instead he reaches into the bedside table to pull out condoms and lube. After rolling the condom on, biting his lip as he gives himself a few strokes, Charles lubes up his fingers and settles down between Erik’s legs.

“Lift for me, love, show me that pretty hole of yours,” Charles says, nudging the crease of Erik’s hip with his nose. Erik obligingly bends his knees and pulls them up toward his torso without his hands, Charles sensing no discomfort whatsoever. That flexibility is something they’ll have to take advantage of next time. Charles tells Erik as much as he pulls a cheek aside that last little bit to give him an unobstructed view, circling his fingers around the pucker.

Erik’s response is broken off into a keen as Charles leans in and runs the flat of his tongue over the hole, feeling it flutter deliciously. Encouraged, Charles licks again, more firmly this time, before stiffening his tongue and licking in. The sound of Erik’s moans vibrates through that touch, intensifying as Charles get more enthusiastic, eventually adding his lubed up fingers to the mix.

He’s unsure how long exactly he spends down there, too caught up in the sounds Erik is aloud and in his head. Charles enjoys eating out all of his partners, no matter their gender, but there’s something about Erik that intensifies the experience tenfold. In all honesty, he could eat Erik out for hours, it’s so intoxicating. Erik interrupts him, though, using one of his feet to push Charles away by the shoulder, his gasping breaths filling the room.

“You need to get in me right now, Charles,” Erik growls down at him, glare tempered by his glassy, blown eyes, mussed hair, and flushed cheeks. “Or I’ll let go and take care of this myself.”

“Always so bossy,” Charles says with a sigh, sitting up as he pulls out his fingers. He can’t find it in himself to be truly disappointed, though; not when his cock is making its presence known again, throbbing and eager to get inside Erik.

Grabbing the lube back up, Charles spreads some on his covered cock and lines up, one hand holding himself steady while the other grabs ahold of Erik’s thigh, the muscles flexing beneath his grip. He pushes in slowly, as much to give himself time to adjust as Erik, not wanting to shoot off before they’ve even begun. Erik welcomes him in with no resistance and a touch of that impatience, but he doesn’t force Charles to go any faster, which he was half expecting.

Finally, Charles is in all the way, balls resting against Erik’s arse. He stays still a few moments, giving them both a little time to breathe, before he leans down to capture Erik’s lips in a biting kiss. The shift makes them both groan and Charles starts moving then, little micro thrusts that make Erik give little grunts, Charles swallowing the sound happily. Erik loses his patience after a minute of this, one of those long legs of his wrapping around Charles’ hips as he bucks up violently.

“Fuck me already,” he growls against Charles’ lips.

Not having the energy to tease, Charles gives Erik one last bruising kiss before sitting back up. One hand gripping Erik’s waist, the other his thigh again, Charles pulls all the way out and slams back in, both of them groaning with the move. After that Charles sets a brutal pace, fucking into Erik fast and hard. Going by the sounds coming out of Erik’s mouth, and the babbling going on inside his head, it’s just what Erik was looking for. His leg wraps tighter around Charles and he moves with him, their thrusts in sync.

As Charles gets closer, he wants to hear that keening again. It only takes a few tries of different angles for that keen to sound again. Charles starts milking that spot, hitting Erik’s prostate straight on until Erik’s hands are releasing from the headboard and scrambling at Charles’ back. One hand gets ahold of the hair at Charles’ nape, gripping it tightly. The sharp pull on his scalp makes Charles moan deeply as he follows the push of Erik’s hands to nip and suck on his neck. Releasing the bruising hold he had on Erik’s thighs, Charles uses one hand to balance over Erik and the other to stroke Erik’s cock at the same quick pace as his thrusts. It only takes a few pulls and Erik is coming, cock jerking in Charles’ hand and splattering come between them. The fluttering of Erik’s hole around him, and the silent moan he can feel where their chests are pressed together, the whiting out of Erik’s mind in his pleasure, pushes Charles over the edge a few thrusts later.

Once he’s finished, Charles collapses on top of Erik, who lets out an _oof _with the impact. They lie there like that as their breathing comes down, Charles’ face tucked into Erik’s neck, nuzzling the skin there, and Erik’s fingers carding through his messy, sweat-soaked hair. Charles basks in their combined afterglow, the contentment radiating from Erik intoxicating.

Eventually, though, they both become aware of the come drying between them, making their stomachs tacky. So with a huff Charles pushes himself up and pulls out carefully, kissing the tip of Erik’s nose in apology when he winces. Charles rolls off Erik and stands up on wobbly legs, tying off the condom and tossing it in the bin just inside the en suite door. He wipes himself down and then wets another cloth for Erik.

Instead of handing him the flannel when he gets back to the bed, Charles cleans Erik up himself. As he works, he places little kisses and nips on the bits of skin along the way, Erik’s amusement flooding through him. He pays particular attention to finger-shaped bruises and fingernail indents he left on Erik’s thigh, licking and nipping at the marks even as he wipes up the lube leftover between Erik’s cheeks. After he’s done, he tosses the cloth back towards the bathroom to pick up later, too lazy and sated to get out of bed again quite yet, instead choosing to kiss up Erik’s torso until he reaches his face, where he captures Erik’s lips in a soft, slow kiss. It sends tingles down his spine that he puts down to a particularly good orgasm.

Breaking off the kiss, Charles leans back enough so their eyes can meet without strain. “Is that the decompression you were looking for?” he asks with a smirk.

Erik laughs, wrapping his arms around Charles and rolling them over, pinning Charles to the bed as he licks back into his mouth. “Better,” he murmurs against Charles’ lips before kissing them chastely one last time and getting up. “I definitely need some food now, though.”

Right on cue, Charles’ stomach gives a loud growl, making them both laugh. “All right, but let’s go out somewhere. I don’t have any good in the house right now.”

Erik laughs again as he heads into the bathroom. “You’re one of those stereotypical academics, aren’t you?” he says as he puts up the toilet seat. “Get so caught up in your teachings and research that you forget to eat, and since any food you have will just go to waste in your refrigerator and cupboards you just eat takeout all the time.”

Sniffing delicately, Charles stands up and stretches out his back, which gives a few loud pops as the sound of Erik urinating starts up. “First of all, I don’t eat takeaway all the time; I cook for myself on occasion. And secondly, do you really have to do that without closing the door?”

The snort is covered by the sound of the toilet flushing, but Charles can feel Erik’s amusement. “So you’ll lick out a man’s asshole without checking first that he’s cleaned himself recently, but you cross the line at leaving the bathroom door open and listening to him take a piss?”

Charles sends Erik the image of him rolling his eyes, since he can’t see it from the bathroom. “I’ll have you know that I did check before I started, thank you. I’d rather not lick out a dirty arsehole.”

“Why Charles!” Erik gasps mockingly as he comes out drying his hands. “Looking into a person’s mind without their express permission first! How amoral of you!”

“I distinctly remember you giving me tacit permission last time to take a peek at anything sex related,” Charles says drily. “And anyway, I would rather cheat and take a look. I’ve been lied to before and like I said, I’d really rather not risk licking a shitty arsehole just because someone was too eager or impatient to tell me the truth.”

Erik hums. “Touché,” he says, stepping in close. “Lucky for us then that I’ve been keeping myself clean in anticipation.” He leaves Charles with that and a short, remarkably dirty kiss, walking out to the living room where they left their clothes.

Pushing back the thought of Erik planning on being fucked all along for contemplation later, Charles shakes his head clear and follows after Erik. He finds him pulling on his trousers. It’s a beautiful sight: Erik’s long, toned body bare except for his undone trousers, ginger curls tousled standing at odd angles, clearly signifying what he’s been up to for the past hour. As Erik reaches up to run a hand through said curls, trousers zipping and buttoning themselves, Charles’ eyes zero in on the marks he wasn’t aware he left. Four are scattered over Erik’s chest, one on the slope of his left shoulder, one on the left side of his neck just beneath his jaw, right over the jugular. The sight makes Charles’ cock give a valiant twitch.

Erik meets Charles’ eyes with a smirk when they trail up to his face, clearly aware of Charles looking him over. He doesn’t say anything about it, though, instead lifting his ripped shirt. “You got something that might fit me, since you ruined this?”

A blush blooms over Charles’ face, which is ridiculous considering what they just did, but he’s always been that way. He takes the opportunity to eye up Erik again, gauging his shirt size. Erik’s torso is longer, and his waist slimmer – so impossibly, mesmerizingly slim – but their shoulders are of a size, so Charles might have something that’ll fit for the most part, if a little short. Lifting a finger, Charles heads back into the bedroom and grabs a dark red Henley that should go well with Erik’s black trousers. He takes the shirt back out and tosses it at Erik.

“Since should fit you well enough, darling,” Charles says as Erik catches the shirt and pulls it on. Caught up in looking at the way the Henley reveals a bit of Erik’s happy trail and shows off those strangely delicate wrists, Charles forgets that he’s still naked until Erik looks him over, running a hand through his hair again to try to tame it.

“While I may appreciate your nudity, Charles, I don’t think you’ll be able to get very far out the building without getting arrested, let alone reach whatever restaurant we’re going to,” Erik says with a nearly straight face, a raised eyebrow that only visible sign of the mirth he’s projecting.

Small smile on his face, Charles shakes his head and starts pulling on his own clothes. Since Erik was more patient than he was, in that aspect at least, Charles’ shirt survived the undressing, so he has no need to grab a new one of his own. Once he’s got his khaki trousers and light blue shirt on, he decides to forgo the cardigan, since he was a bit warm in it earlier.

“Where was it you wanted to eat?” Charles asks as he bends over to pull on and tie his brogues. “Since you’re the one who’s been saying you’re starving for the past few hours. Though apparently not hungry enough until now, since here we are.”

Erik hums from behind him. “Hadn’t really thought about where, to be honest,” he says absentmindedly, distracted by watching Charles’ arse if his thoughts are any indication. “Though burgers do sound pretty good, as long as they’re kosher.”

Thinking about the nearby restaurants he frequents, Charles shakes his head as he stands back up. “I don’t know if there are any around here. That’s not really something I keep track of, though, so you might have to google it.”

“It’s fine, I know a place nearby,” Erik says as he ties his boots. “They make good milkshakes too.”

“Sounds good. I didn’t know you kept kosher. Or that you were Jewish, actually,” Charles admits as he locks up behind them.

“What, you didn’t pick that up in all your snooping?” Erik teases. Not waiting for a response – not that Charles was going to give one to that – Erik goes on to tell him about growing up in Germany with his parents and older sister as they walk, until his father died and his sister was injured in a fire when he was fourteen and his powers manifested. When they moved to the States to what his mother thought was a nice Jewish neighborhood in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Erik was caught up in all the race riots.

“I was young and angry about everything – losing my father, Anya becoming so shy and withdrawn because of her injuries from the fire, moving to a new country, trying to figure out these newfound powers,” Erik admits while they wait for their food, sitting in a corner booth. “I honestly wasn’t all that aware of what was really going on, what all the fighting was really about. If I had been, I wouldn’t have been so willing to get involved. But…” Here he breaks off with a shrug. “Such is the hindsight of adulthood.”

Charles chuckles. “I know that feeling all too well, my friend. The advantages of hindsight sometimes make it far easier for us to understand our past mistakes, and hopefully atone for them.”

“Oh? What sort of mistakes do you wish to atone for?” Erik asks with obvious curiosity.

Just then their food arrives, saving Charles from giving an answer right away. After they’ve both thanked their waitress, Charles focuses more on arranging his napkin in his lap than he needs to. “I think that is a subject we should save at least until after dinner, as we’ve already covered some pretty heavy topics on your end.”

Erik’s curiosity only intensifies at Charles’ sidestep, but he doesn’t argue, instead humming in agreement as he digs into his food.

The rest of the week Charles and Erik send messages back and forth throughout their days. Much of the time Erik complains about all the ridiculous requests Tony makes of him, none of which Charles is surprised about considering it’s Tony. When he confesses to Erik that he and Tony have been friends since they were children, Erik asks him how he’s been able to put up with Tony all those years without murdering him. Charles just laughs.

At some point, one of them makes mention of chess and they end up downloading an app so that they can play each other when they get the chance around work. The conversations and the games help add a bit of pleasure to Charles’ days, which would otherwise be nothing but stressful, with the continued attempts by his students to put off their theses or to get the questions for the final out of him.

“You’re awfully chipper for dead week,” Raven observes that Friday for their weekly sibling night out, taking a sip of her Long Island and pushing a strand of red hair out of her face.

“Why whatever do you mean, sister dear?” Charles asks from behind his glass of scotch.

Raven points at him. “That, that right there. What’s got you in such a good mood? You get laid or something?”

All Charles has to do it lift an eyebrow and Raven is squawking. “What?” she asks, slapping the table needlessly hard, rattling their glasses. “You never sleep with anyone during dead week! You always say it distracts you from helping your students with any last-minute questions or issues. Which I always thought was weird, since that’s never stopped you from sleeping around every other day of the semester, including finals week. So who was it that you broke your little rule for?”

Knowing Raven won’t let it go until he gives a straight answer, Charles just sighs. “If you must know, it was the guy I met at your engagement party last weekend, Erik.”

“Erik?” Raven says, staring at him with her eyebrows high on her forehead. “Erik, Emma’s friend who’s a walking hard-on that you left early with, Erik? The metallokinetic whose mutation you can’t stop gushing about and orgasming over, Erik?”

Charles huffs and rolls his eyes at her dramatics. Such is the prerogative of little sisters, he supposes. “Do we know any other Eriks, let alone any other metallokinetics?”

“Sorry,” Raven says with a raise of her hands, though he knows she’s not. “I’m just surprised. It’s not often you sleep with the same person twice, let alone get this happy about it during one of your most stressful weeks of the year.”

He hums thoughtfully as he takes another sip of his scotch. “We’ve become something like friends, I suppose. It’s nice, having someone to talk to who’s legitimately interested in my research, even if he doesn’t completely understand everything. Not to mention he’s an excellent chess player. Beat me a few times.”

“Plus he’s a good lay,” Raven interjects.

“Raven,” Charles admonishes, though she’s not really wrong.

“Hey, you’re the one with a fuck buddy, not me. I’m getting married in a year.”

Charles smiles at her. “It’s a crazy world, isn’t it?”

Raven laughs. “Yes. Yes, it is.” They clink their glasses together and drain them, signaling a waiter for another round.

“Apparently, I’ve been more tolerable than usual the past couple weeks,” Erik says as they sit up propped against the headboard in Erik’s apartment, sweat cooling on their bodies as they share a joint. “Stark asked if somebody had messed with my programming when I wasn’t looking.”

Charles snorts. “That sounds like Tony,” he comments before taking a deep drag and holding it before letting it out slowly. This is something he indulges in after the end of every semester to help him decompress. He was honestly surprised when Erik told him to bring it over, but it’s nice to share it with someone, instead of sitting alone in his flat with the tele on something inane. “Raven told me something similar last weekend, though.”

Erik hums, breathing the smoke out of his nose, which should not be hot. They’re in their fucking forties, for god’s sake; Charles should not find something like this attractive. But Erik can make nearly anything attractive.

“Perhaps now that we have met our equals, we find it easier to deal with all the shit,” Erik says contemplatively. He takes another drag and lets it out. “Or maybe it’s all the decent sex.”

“Decent!” Charles sputters indignantly. As Erik laughs, Charles turns and straddles him, the sheet falling from their waists behind him. “Decent my arse, you twat.”

As soon as Charles spots Erik at Raven and Emma’s New Years Eve party, he shoots across the room, changing people’s perceptions so he can get through without being stopped.

“Thank god you’re here,” Charles gasps, latching onto Erik’s arm and dragging him over to the bar.

Erik, surprisingly letting himself be pulled along without resistance or complaint, looks at him with a slight smirk. “What’s the matter, Charles? I thought you loved parties.”

“I did when I was sleeping with anyone available, within reason,” he responds, looking around to make sure his control hasn’t slipped. All is good; nobody has noticed Charles practically hiding behind Erik’s taller frame, while Erik looks like he’s just getting himself a drink. “Now everyone and their daughter is hitting on me and they won’t leave me alone, no matter what I do. It’s so strange. All I want to do is drink and then once the ball drops take you home and have drunken, filthy sex.”

A weird expression flits across Erik’s face, along with an emotion that is gone too quickly. Before Charles can figure them out, the smirk is back on Erik’s face.

“Do you need me to save you from all the scary twenty-somethings who want to sleep with the hot, older man?” Erik mocks.

“Yes,” Charles responds, completely serious. “I was never this aggressive when I was their age.”

Erik lifts an eyebrow. “I’m sure Raven could tell me stories that would say otherwise.”

“Oh god,” Charles groans, eyes widening. “Please never talk to Raven about my sex life.”

Laughing, Erik squeezes Charles’ bicep. “I will protect you, Charles.”

“Let me guess,” Charles sighs, crossing his arms. “It’s for a price.”

“Why Charles! Whatever do you think of me, that I would blackmail a friend in a time of need?” Erik exclaims, doing a good job of mock indignation, though he projects him mirth plainly.

“You are a ridiculous man, Erik Lehnsherr,” Charles huffs with a pout.

Erik’s mock shocked face morphs into one of utter delight, that gorgeous wide grin of his spreading across his face. “That pronunciation was perfect. Well done, Charles.”

Perking up with a grin of his own, Charles says, “Really? I’ve only just started learning German, but I’m glad it’s already paying off.”

When he says that, that unknown emotion flits through Erik and is gone again before Charles can identify it. He doesn’t have the chance to try to suss it out anway because the next thing Erik says is, “Learning a new language at your age? Are you sure that’s such a good idea, Charles? Your retention isn’t what it used to be.”

“You’re two years older than me, you twat,” Charles snorts as he shoves a laughing Erik’s shoulder. “No retention, my arse.”

~

“Huh,” Emma says, watching Erik with Charles across the room in the corner near the bar.

“What?” Raven asks from next to her, breaking off conversation with Hank to look at her.

Emma nods her head toward the two men. “Erik. He’s smiling and laughing.”

“So?” Raven asks, an eyebrow raised.

“So, he’s never like that,” Emma points out like it’s obvious. “I’ve known Erik since college and he’s only ever like that around his family; his mom, his sister, and her kids.

“Plus he’s projecting how happy and content he is right now. Part of his mutation is that he has a bit of a natural resistance to telepathy, and he’s pretty good at masking his thoughts and emotions otherwise. You know how hard that is, to develop that skill.”

Raven throws her head back with a groan. “I can’t tell you how many times Charles has tried to explain that to me, that it’s not simply a shield but a misdirection blah blah blah.”

Ignoring her fiancé’s dramatics, Emma nods. “Exactly. And Erik is always making sure he’s maintaining that unless he’s only around people he trusts.”

The response she gets to that is a shrug. “I still don’t see why it’s a big deal with he’s enjoying himself,” Raven says. “It is Charles. You know how he brings out either the absolute best or the absolute worst in people.”

Emma sighs. “You’ll get it once you get to know Erik better – which it looks like you will, judging by that,” she observes, nodding toward the boys again as Charles leans his forehead against Erik’s chest while they both laugh loudly about something.

Humming thoughtfully as she watches her brother, Raven says, “I don’t know about Erik, but Charles has definitely been different recently.”

“How so?” Emma asks curiously.

“Well, you remember how they left our engagement party early without saying goodbye to go have sex.”

“Of course,” Emma says drily. She gave up long ago on teaching Erik proper etiquette, since he didn’t even listen to his mother about that.

“Well, they’ve been sleeping together since then. Charles even had sex with him during dead week. Weird, right?”

“That is interesting…” Emma muses, making note to ask Anya if she’s noticed anything different about her brother recently.

~

“Magnets!” a familiar voice exclaims from behind Charles. He watches as Erik’s happy, open expression shuts down, going flat, as annoyance starts to edge out his contentment. It makes Charles sad, but he can’t say anything aloud with Tony wrapping an arm around his shoulder the next moment, and he hasn’t asked Erik how he feels about telepathic communication outside the odd slip up during sex. So he says nothing and frets silently.

“I didn’t know you two knew each other,” Tony continues, jostling Charles a little. “How d’you know good old Charlie here, Magnets? You don’t seem like the type to run around in his crowd.”

Charles rolls his eyes. “You know I don’t have a crowd, Tony. And we met at Raven and Emma’s engagement party, which you missed.”

“Ah well, lost track of time, you know how it goes,” Tony dismisses. “But Pep and Morgan made it, so the Stark clan was represented. Pep’s better at that sorta shit than I am anyway.”

“Speaking of Pepper,” Charles says, silently agreeing that she’s the better at socializing, considering she never steps on any toes, “where is she? Last I heard, she had told Raven you two couldn’t make it, that you were going to stay home with Morgan.”

“Well, we were gonna stay home with the munchkin, but then the kid offered to watch her for us,” Tony explains. “They both seemed really into the idea, so we figured why the hell not, right?”

Charles raises his eyebrows. “Peter’s watching her? Are you sure that’s such a good idea? He’s a good, smart kid, but Morgan is your child; he’ll buckle easily under her pressure.”

“Nah, he’ll be fine,” Tony waves it off. “MJ and Ned are there too. And if all else fails, there’s always JARVIS and FRIDAY.”

“FRIDAY?”

Tony perks up like a proud parent. “Peter’s little pet AI. She’s pretty good.”

Charles is surprised to see Erik nod in agreement. “Parker’s got a good eye for engineering. Kid’ll go far.”

“You won’t believe how good Magnets is with Pete,” Tony says in a confidential tone, though he doesn’t bother lowering his voice any. “The first time Pete asked for his help with something I thought he was gonna have his wrists crushed by his web shooters.”

Erik huffs. “He actually has reasonable requests and asks me interesting, in depth questions about engineering and my mutation. Why would I want to discourage a young, curious, bright mind like that?”

That really warms Charles and he beams at Erik. “And you said you never wanted to be a teacher,” he teases, nudging Erik, who just huffs, but Charles can see the slight smile in the corner of his mouth.

Charles turns back to Tony. “You never said where Pepper was.”

“Oh yeah,” Tony says. “Nat, Hill, and Danvers found out she had a night sans toddler, so they decided she needed a night sans me too.”

“She probably does,” Charles says, knowing all that Pepper has put up with with Tony.

“She definitely does,” Tony agrees. “That woman is a saint. Now if you will excuse me, I better get back to Rhodey; he’s lost without Carol bossing him around these days.” With that and a wink Tony walks off.

Erik’s expression opens back up. “Did you do that?”

“Do what?” Charles asks. “Makes Tony leave? No, I never make anyone do anything if I can help it.”

Head cocked, Erik looks him over with curiosity. “Have you had to make people do things before?”

Grimacing, Charles clears his throat awkwardly. “That would be a part of that conversation about past mistakes I’ve had to atone for.”

“We never did have that conversation,” Erik points out, curiosity only getting stronger, almost overwhelmingly so.

“Maybe tomorrow.”

Erik opens his mouth to argue, but then everyone starts counting down. “I didn’t realize it was that late already.”

“Nor I,” Charles agrees, looking around as people start pairing off for their midnight kisses. “You want to get out of here?”

When he turns his head, Erik is standing mere inches away. “In a minute,” Erik murmurs, eyes locked with Charles’ as he leans in. As the room is filled with shouts of “happy new year” he bridges the distance, capturing Charles’ lips in what starts out as a chaste kiss. Quickly it devolves as Charles decides to nip at Erik’s bottom lip. Erik groans and opens up, sucking on Charles’ tongue as it enters his mouth and making Charles moan in return.

Breaking off the kiss before it can get too heated, Charles leans his forehead against Erik’s with a pant.

“Your place or mine?” Erik asks, trying to catch his breath as well despite the kiss being fairly brief.

“Yours is closer,” Charles responds softly, nudging his nose along Erik’s in a caress.

Erik takes that as the request it is, recapturing Charles’ lips in a slow, lingering kiss. After a few trailing, chaste kisses, Erik pulls all the way back and grabs Charles’ hand. “Let’s go.”

The next Charles knows Erik is shoving him against the wall just inside his door. He doesn’t remember pushing their way through all the party goers, let alone the four-block walk to Erik’s flat. And he can’t bring himself to much care, too busy arching into Erik as he grinds against Charles, who has his hands gripping Erik’s arse tight. His needy grunts are lost in Erik’s mouth as Erik licks along his soft and hard palates, making him shiver.

Arousal growing, Erik starts walking them back to his room, pulling Charles in front of him and undressing him along the way. Charles returns the favor, briefly breaking their kiss to pull Erik’s turtleneck off. Once both their jumps are gone, Erik latches onto Charles’ neck, undoing both their trousers with his powers as they kick off their shoes in the hallway. When the backs of Erik’s knees hit the side of the bed, he spins them around and pushes Charles to lie back on it. Kneeling between Charles’ legs after taking off both their trousers, Erik groans to find Charles went commando.

Propped on his elbows to watch, Charles smirks down at him. “I wanted as few layers to get rid of as possible.”

“You’re a genius as always, Charles,” Erik moans, kissing up Charles’ thigh. Upon reaching Charles’ hip, he turns his kisses leftward to the trail of hair leading down from Charles’ navel. Mouthing at the skin there, Erik seems ready to set up camp. To discourage this, Charles knocks Erik’s shoulder with his knee, all too aware of the way his cock is rubbing against Erik’s cheek and the corner of his mouth, smearing pre-come there.

“Get on with it, you fucking bastard,” Charles groans, trying to arch up against the hold Erik has on his hips. “Now who’s the fucking tease?”

_Tsk_-ing and shaking his head, Erik meets Charles’ eyes and maintains contact as he trails kisses down, still bypassing Charles’ cock, until he gets to Charles’ sac. While down there, he mouths at Charles’ balls, first one, then the other. He’s sloppy about it, saliva dripping down onto Charles’ perineum. Dragging some of it down, Erik massages at Charles’ hole while he continues to suck on his balls.

“Erik,” Charles grunts, sitting up and grabbing at Erik’s hair. “Put those fucking fingers in me already.”

Not taking his mouth off Charles, Erik lifts one hand as the bedside drawer opens and a metal jar of lube comes flying out. He scoops some up and teases Charles’ hole a little more before inserting a finger. Only then does he release Charles’ balls and move on to his cock, steadying it with his free hand so that he can pull back the foreskin a little and tongue at the head. When Charles’ hips twitch at that, which Erik knew would happen based off past experience, Erik hums, making Charles moan and grip Erik’s hair tighter. Steadily, Erik fingers Charles open, working his cock all the while, doing everything Charles likes. Then his three fingers inside Charles graze his prostate.

With the jolt of stimulation against his prostate, Charles’ hips twitch again, his cock moving further down Erik’s throat. The groan Erik lets out at that makes Charles do it again. When Erik squeezes the base of his cock for a second and moans again, Charles knows he’s been given permission to fuck Erik’s face. So he starts rocking at a semi-calm pace at first, rocking between Erik’s mouth and fingers. Then Erik swallows around him and he loses all control, tightening his grip on Erik’s hair to keep him steady.

It’s not long before he’s getting close, the combination of Erik’s fingers, mouth, moans, and waves of emotion pushing him quickly towards the edge. Charles tugs and relaxes his hand in Erik’s hair.

“Erik, I’m close,” he pants as a warning, but Erik doesn’t stop, instead continuing to keep up a constant pulse against his prostate and tongue underneath his foreskin to get at the head again, moaning all the while. Charles chokes on the wave of arousal and satisfaction and pride that he’s the one reducing Charles to this and with that Charles comes, gasping out Erik’s name. His orgasm seems to go on forever, as Erik moans and swallow around him, rubbing his prostate until just before it gets to be too much.

Breaking off with a gasp, Erik lays his forehead against Charles’ hip as he pulls out his fingers and catches his breath. Charles cards his fingers through Erik’s hair, humming contently while Erik nuzzles into the skin there briefly.

After a moment, Charles realizes something, his hand stopping in Erik’s hair. “Erik, did you…”

Erik stands up with a stretch and a groan, his knees and back popping, before he drops onto the bed next to Charles. “You were projecting your thoughts and pleasure pretty strongly. It felt like it was my dick, my ass, my orgasm, so…” He shrugs, nonchalant.

“Oh god.” Charles groans and covers his face. “I am so sorry. That hasn’t happened since I was a teenger, I don’t know why – I’m sorry,” he says, voice muffled and pathetic, as his face flushes in shame. His control is always so good, has been since not long after his powers manifested when he was seven years old. What is wrong with him?

Hands wrap gently around his wrists, pulling his hands away from his face. Opening his eyes, he finds Erik looking at him, expression open and serious.

“Charles, there is nothing wrong with you,” he reassures, though that just makes Charles feel even worse for continuing to project his thoughts and feelings onto Erik.

The hold on his wrists tightens. “Stop that. I don’t mind you projecting. In fact, I quite enjoy knowing your thoughts and feelings – and not just when we’re having sex or you’re particularly overwhelming.”

Charles can’t help but frown. “You do?” That doesn’t sound right. Most people hate it when he projects even a little bit, let alone to the extent that he is right now.

“Yes,” Erik says, voice firm as his thumbs stroke over the backs of Charles’ hands. “And I like when you’re aware of mine.” He takes a deep breath and Charles watches with rapt attention as Erik comes to a decision. “Which is why I’ve decided I’d like this to continue, this bond of sorts you’ve created, where we can know each other’s feelings and surface thoughts.

“Obviously,” he adds, “I don’t want you digging further into my thoughts and memories without my permission, but everything else.” Erik shrugs. “It’s all yours. I don’t want you to feel like you have to hold yourself back around me, that you can’t be wholly yourself, including using your powers as you wish.”

Mouth gaping open and eyes blinking rapidly as he tries to process the offer Erik just made, Charles can’t help but stare in disbelief. No one has allowed him that sort of intimate give and take. Not Raven, his sister. Not Tony, his oldest friend. Not Emma or his friend Jean, the only other telepaths he knows. He didn’t know just how much this was something he craved until now, with this offer on the table. It feels like it’s almost too good to be true.

“You…” Charles whispers brokenly, unable to find the words and feeling tears in the backs of his eyes. So instead he darts forward and kisses Erik, pouring all his confused emotions into the kiss and their telepathic bond, which he can feel pulsing with Erik’s delight.

Breaking off, Charles leans their foreheads together. “You are the most socking, amazing, lovely person I have ever known. I am so glad to have you in my life.”

“Me too, Charles,” Erik responds softly, curling their bodies tightly together in a warm embrace. Eventually they’ll have to get up to clean themselves up and get under the covers, but right now they’re content to lie here together, basking in this new thing they have.

Charles wakes up to the smell of food cooking. Reaching out a tendril of power, he brushes against Erik’s mind. It lights up with mirth as Erik sends along a message.

_Morning, sleeping beauty_, he says, the laughter clear in his mind.

Bones popping as he stretches, Charles sends a message of his own. _What time is it?_

_Just after nine._

Groaning as he gets up, Charles stops off in the bathroom before pulling on a t-shirt and boxers. He finds Erik chopping vegetables at the counter while behind him potatoes sizzle in a skillet and a metal spatula flips pancakes. It’s always such a delight to see him use his powers so casually in his daily life.

“There was an awful lot of groaning going on back there,” Erik comments, letting go of the knife to let it continue chopping on its own so he can walk around the island to Charles. He leans his hip against the side and smirks. “Getting old, Charles?”

Charles just rolls his eyes as he yawns, scrubbing a hand along his jaw.

Erik reaches out and runs a hand over Charles’ cheek, Charles leaning into the touch. “You’re getting scruffy, my friend.”

“So are you,” Charles responds with a snort, leaning in and kissing Erik. He means for it to be a short peck, but Erik leans into it, wrapping his arm around Charles’ waist as he gently works their lips together. Charles hums into it, sending Erik a happy, content tendril and getting one in return.

Despite how slow and chaste the kiss is, Charles’ heart is pounding, racing out of his chest. It’s an overwhelming feeling, an emotion he can’t place flooding through him, one that’s answered in kind by Erik. Charles has no idea what’s happening, but whatever it is he doesn’t want it to end.

Erik chuckles into the kiss before breaking it off. “For such a powerful telepath, you’re very dense when it comes to emotions, aren’t you?” he says, grinning wide with this strange sparkle in his eyes.

“What d’you mean?” Charles asks, cocking his head in curiosity.

Shaking his head, Erik kisses Charles’ forehead and steps back. “You’ll figure it out eventually.”

With that he starts dishing up the food, handing Charles a plate of pancakes and fried potatoes, mushrooms, onion, and bell peppers. It looks and smells amazing.

Suddenly starving, having only snacked more than eaten a proper supper the night before, Charles smothers his plate in maple syrup, gets a glass of milk, and sits down at Erik’s small dining table in the corner. As he’s spreading the napkin over his lap he remembers something.

“Shit, I forgot to make myself --”

“Tea,” Erik finishes for him, placing a mug of Charles’ favorite Earl Grey in front of him, black like he always takes it in the mornings.

“You are perfect,” Charles moans, picking up his tea to take a sip. Perfect temperature, as always when Erik makes it. “Seriously, I could keep you forever based on this alone.”

“Eat your breakfast, Charles,” Erik orders sternly, though Charles can feel his delight at Charles’ completely sincere declaration.

“Yes, darling,” Charles quips back, earning him a kick under the table after Erik sits down. He traps Erik’s foot between his legs. It stays there for the rest of the meal, occasionally stroking up and down Charles’ leg.

A door slamming startles Charles awake. When he glances at the clock on the bedside table on Erik’s side of the bed, he finds it’s only just before six thirty in the morning. Whining, he buries his face back down into Erik’s back and tightens his hold on Erik’s waist. In response, Erik rolls over until they’re facing each other, tangling their legs together as he tucks his face in Charles’ hair with a snuffle. Charles is ready to fall back asleep like this, but the universe seems to have other plans.

“Erik Magnus Lehnsherr, you better not still be in bed,” a woman with a German accent yells from the direction of the living room. The voice gets closer, along with stomping footsteps. “We have to be at Mama’s in twenty minutes and you know how she feels about tardiness.”

It’s Erik’s turn to groan as he tugs the blanket up over their heads, attempting to hide them from whoever it is in the hallway. The tactic doesn’t work, though, as the next minute the blanket is tugged off of them, making Charles yelp at the sudden cold. Next to him, Erik is throwing a metal ball back at the intruder, thunderous expression in place as he projects frustration and disgruntlement.

“What have I told you about throwing metal objects at my head when I’m sleeping, Anya?” he says far too calmly for the hour, seemingly unconcerned with his nakedness in front of the woman standing at the foot of the bed while Charles scrambles for a sheet, a pillow, something.

“And what have I told you about getting your tuches out of bed on time, Brüderlein?” the woman retorts, voice sickly sweet. She has a similar speech pattern to Erik, and the same stormy eyes and ginger hair, though hers is longer and curlier. It also looks like she may also be taller than Charles, with that same slim, athletic build, though it’s hard to tell for sure with the way she’s bundled up in a thick winter coat and scarf. The entire left side of her face is covered in burn scars a far deeper red than her hair, pulling down that corner of her mouth. That doesn’t stop her from smirking in the same manner as Erik, the right corner of her mouth curling up and in.

Huffing, Erik gets out of bed and starts getting dressed. “Last Mama told me she said to be there by 7:15. It’s just now 6:30, we’ve got plenty of time.”

“You know how Mama likes to change her mind and then only tell one of us, usually me, because she knows I’ll be nicer about dragging you out of bed,” the woman says absentmindedly, her eyes now on Charles, who has finally covered himself back up with the blanket. “Who’s this?”

“This is Charles,” Erik introduces, voice muffled as he pulls on a black turtleneck. “Charles, this is Anya, my pain in the ass big sister.”

Anya nods her head at Charles as he waves awkwardly. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too,” Charles says weakly. He turns to Erik. “What’s happening?”

Pulling on his trousers from the night before, Erik explains, “It’s Tu B’Shevat, the New Year of Trees. Every year we meet at Mama’s, eat fruit praised by the Holy Land, and plant a tree in her or Anya’s yard – though we’re starting to run out of room in both.”

Charles is intrigued by the customs involved that Erik isn’t elaborating on. He’s about to ask more when Anya interrupts him.

“Which is why you should get your own place out by us already,” Anya snarks.

Erik rolls his eyes in true younger sibling fashion, which Charles knows well from growing up with Raven. “Why would I do that? I work in the city, and I like it here.”

“Yeah yeah. Now get your ass moving. I’m surprised the kids haven’t started calling me, wondering what’s taking so long.”

Finished tying his trainers, Erik leans down and kisses the top of Charles’ head, sending him a tendril of affection. “Go back to sleep, Schatz. I’ll be back later.”

Eyes flitting between them, Anya cocks her head. “Why don’t you bring him? You know how Mama loves teaches new people our customs, especially anyone who’s brave enough to get close to you.”

“I don’t want to intrude,” Charles says, voice reluctant, though he would very much like to finally see this aspect of Erik’s life that he’s barely gotten a glimpse at.

“You wouldn’t be intruding,” Erik says aloud. _You don’t have to come if you don’t want to._

_Are you kidding me? _Charles asks, incredulous. _I would be delighted._

_Good, _Erik sends with a smile, _because I would love you to as well._

“It’s settled then,” Charles says, starting to stand up before he comes to a stop, looking at Anya. “Ah, would you mind terribly waiting out in the hallway while I get dressed?”

“Such a modest friend you have, Erik,” Anya teases, even as she heads back toward the door.

Erik snorts. “He’s really not. He just has manners, unlike some people.” As Anya flips him off, he shuts the door in her face.

“No getting up to anything dirty in there!” she shouts through the door. “We’re on a tight schedule.”

“Go wait in the car with the children,” Erik yells back. He wraps his arms around Charles’ waist, trapping the blanket between them, and looks down at him. “You’re sure you want to come? It’ll be a long day. Mama will ask personal question that are really none of her business, and she’ll try to stuff you with more food than you can eat, insisting that you’re too skinny. Even if you do have a bit of a belly.” Here he pats Charles’ stomach, which admittedly isn’t as toned as it used to be.

Charles pulls away with a sniff, letting the blanket drop as he moves to the closet. “I thought you said you liked my pudge.”

Laughing, Erik grabs him from behind this time, hands rubbing over Charles’ stomach. “You know I do,” he murmurs in Charles’ ear, voice husky as he rolls his hips into Charles’ backside.

“You better stop that now,” Charles groans, even as his head drops back onto Erik’s shoulder and he rolls his hips back, “or your mother will hate me before she’s even met me for making you all late.”

“Impossible,” Erik quips, kissing Charles’ shoulder and letting him go with one last squeeze.

Unable to hold back a snort, Charles starts getting dressed, pulling on some of the jeans and one of the jumpers he’s taken to keeping here. Now that he thinks about it, a great deal of his wardrobe is here in Erik’s closet. He shrugs and straightens out the lilac jumper. After tugging on his boots, he stands up and holds out his arms.

“How do I look?” he asks, trying to hide his anxiety.

Erik stands up from where he had sat back down on the bed. “Perfection,” he says, and Charles can hear that he’s being completely sincere.

“Really?” he double checks, running a hand through his hair. “I don’t look shabby? I haven’t trimmed my beard yet, I was going to do that today.”

“Your beard is fine, Schatz,” Erik reassures him, pulling his hand away from his hair. “Stop that, your hair is fine too.” To take away the sting, he kisses Charles softly, rubbing a hand up and down his back. Charles melts into him.

“Now let’s go before Anya comes storming back up here,” Erik says, starting to pull away, but Charles stops him with a hand in his jumper.

“Just one second.” He pulls him down in one last chaste kiss. “Okay, now I’m ready.”

Laughing again, Erik tugs him out the door, which locks behind them as they put on their coats and head down the stairs. When they get outside, Anya is leaning against the car, making a show of looking at her watch.

“How long does it take you to get dressed, huh?” she calls.

“Relax, Anya,” Erik sighs. “If you really wanted to get back before seven, you would’ve picked me up earlier.” Opening the back door of the small SUV, he motions for Charles to get in first.

Ducking down, Charles sees a teenage girl sitting in the far seat, long, deep red hair covering half her face until she pulls it back to reveal bright blue eyes, an aquiline nose, and a full mouth. Charles smiles at her as he sits down.

“Hello, you must be Erik’s niece,” he says as he buckles in. “I’m Ch—”

“Who’s the goy?” a voice asks from the front seat, and Charles turns to see a teenage boy with the same eyes and facial features, though a little more angular, and silver hair looking back at them. “You Erik’s latest fuck?”

“Pietro,” Anya says sharply from the driver’s seat as she starts the car.

“What?” Pietro says with a shrug. “It’s a fair question.”

Next to Charles, Erik sits forward and wraps an arm loosely around Pietro’s neck. “You’re such a little shit. You ever going to learn to respect your elders?”

“I will when you become respectable, old man,” Pietro sasses.

Chuckling, Erik lets him go and ruffles his hair, which Pietro grumbles at, before sitting back in his seat and finally buckling up – though that’s probably more habit from teaching the kids to use them than anything, since Erik technically wouldn’t need one. “To answer your question, this is Charles. He’s my –”

“Fuck buddy?”

“My friend,” Erik finishes, like Pietro hadn’t interrupted him. “Charles, this is my nephew, Pietro. Next to you is his far lovelier and better-behaved twin, Wanda. You’ll find their mutations fascinating, particularly Wanda’s.”

Intrigued, Charles turns to Wanda again. “Oh? What can you do, my dear, if you don’t mind my asking?”

She stares at him, head cocked, seeming to measure him up. He seems to pass muster because she smiles. “I can do a great many things. I have telekinesis; I can teleport; I can warp reality, though only to small extents so far; I can perform hexes, which intensifies my telekinesis and helps me create force shields, among other things; and recently I’ve started learning how to fly. Erik’s been helping me out a bit with that when he comes over.”

As she speaks, Charles becomes more and more excited. Wanda has more abilities than he has ever hear of in one single person, and she seems to still be coming into her own. Based on what Erik is thinking on the other side of him, he feels the same. No wonder he said Charles would be fascinated with her powers.

“Fascinating,” Charles breaths. “I would love to see some of that later, if you don’t mind. This is absolute unprecedented; in all my research, the X-gene has only ever presented as three abilities before, and even then, there’s usually one ability that is the person’s strength. From what your uncle is showing me right now, it seems you excel at all of your abilities and are only getting stronger with each one.”

A blush spreads across Wanda’s face and she ducks her head, hair becoming a curtain again. Next to him, Erik chuckles.

“I think you’ve flustered her, professor,” he teases, leaning into Charles.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, love,” Charles says, briefly touching her shoulder. “I always forget myself when it comes to mutations. But it is my area of study, after all, and the variety of ways they manifest is truly fascinating.”

Lifting her head back up, Wanda gives him another shy smile. “It’s okay.” She looks between him and Erik. “You said Erik was showing you what I can do?”

“Oh yes, I’m a telepath,” Charles tells her. “Your uncle and I tend to communicate that way sometimes, especially when I’m having a foul day and am non-verbal. He’s remarkably brilliant at it for a non-psionic.”

_Flatterer_, Erik sends him, squeezing his thigh where his hand has been resting.

Turning toward the front passenger seat, Charles asks, “What can you do, Pietro?”

“I’m really fast,” Pietro responds absently, his fingers moving quickly over the gamepad he’s playing with. To supplement his response, Erik sends Charles memories again, this time of Pietro moving and performing tasks at speeds faster than the human mind can comprehend.

Humming, Charles asks, “Do you know just how fast you can go?” When Pietro just shrugs, he changes tact. “Have you ever felt like you’ve really strained yourself?”

“Not really,” Pietro mumbles.

“Intriguing,” Charles breaths, and it really is. He’s met mutants and enhanced individuals with super strength, intelligence, and healing, but none with super speed. “The world must seem incredibly slow to you, Pietro.”

“Ugh, it seriously is,” Pietro groans, throwing his head back against the seat. “And Ma makes me be just as slow, it’s awful.”

“Quit complaining,” Anya says, pulling the car to a stop. “We’re at your oma’s, so behave.”

Hearing this, Charles’ nerves come back full force. While Anya and the kids pile out, Erik unlocks both their seatbelts and pulls him close. Hands on either side of Charles’ face, his thumbs stroke over his cheekbones.

“You’ll be fine, Schatz,” Erik reassures him again. “Amazing, in fact. Just be yourself and Mama will love you.”

Charles takes a deep, shaking breath and lets it out slowly before nodding, grasping Erik’s wrist. “Okay,” he says quietly. “Okay, let’s go.”

Placing a kiss on his forehead, Erik leads him out of the car and up toward the house, their fingers intertwined and clasp tight. The hold, along with Erik’s mind against his own, grounds him. Not too soon, either, because as soon as they step inside the house he’s swept up into a tight hug.

“Oh, Anya told me Erik was bringing a special friend,” Erik’s mother gushes. She pulls back and holds him at arm’s length. “Let me look at you.”

“Mama,” Erik says from beside him. “Let Charles breathe. He’s not—” He breaks off and nudges Charles mentally, who gives him the go ahead. “He’s not used to such warm welcome from mothers.”

“Oh, you poor thing,” she tuts. “A boy should know a mother’s love. Come along, let Erik take your coat, he’ll put it away. Come with me to the dining room. There’s plenty of food to go around.” After Erik pulls off Charles’ coat for him, his mother pulls Charles along.

He looks back at Erik pleadingly, having no idea what to do in a situation like this. Erik just waves him along, telling him through their connection that he’ll be along in a moment after he hands their coats in the closet.

Charles tries not to gulp as Erik’s mother pulls him along and sits him at the already set dining room table.

“So how did you meet my Erik?” Mrs. Lehnsherr asks, piling fruit onto Charles’ plate and pouring him some juice.

“Oh, Mrs. Lehnsherr, I can do that,” Charles protests.

“Please, dear, call me Edie,” she insists, smacking Charles’ hand away as he attempts to grab the pitcher from her. “Now tell me the story.”

Rubbing his hand to soothe the sting, Charles says, “There’s really not much to tell. We met at my sister, Raven’s engagement party. She’s marrying a mutual friend of ours, Emma.”

“Oh, Emma is such a lovely girl,” Edie gushes, sitting down at the head of the table to Charles’ right.

“She is,” Charles agrees. “I’m honestly surprised Erik and I hadn’t met sooner; Emma and I have been friends for years, ever since she and Raven started dating.”

“Ah, well, my Erik has always been a bit of a workaholic,” Edie explains. “He spent so much time in the laboratory for days on end. I can’t tell you how many times I have had to call Emma to go over to that building and pull him out over the years just so he would come visit his poor mother.”

Charles pats her hand on the table between them. “Well, I’d like to think I’ve been able to change that over the last few months.”

“You have, Schatz,” Erik says from behind him, hand on his shoulder as he places a kiss on his mother’s cheek, before he sits down across from Charles on Edie’s other side.

“Yeah, we’ve seen much more of Erik since November than we have in the past five years combined,” Anya says as she sits down next to Erik.

“It’s been nice,” Wanda adds, sitting down to Charles’ left. “Maybe he can start bringing you too?”

“I would love that,” Charles responds honestly. “As long as your mother and grandmother don’t mind me barging in on family get togethers from time to time.”

“Please,” Pietro huffs from the other end of the table. “Oma wanted you around as soon as you got Erik to come around more often.”

Fighting to ignore the flush spreading across his face, Charles chuckles. “I don’t know if I can live up to all this built up expectation you all have created for me,” he jokes. “I really didn’t make Erik do anything. Just showed him that there’s more to life than work, which he’s done for me in return. That’s the true miracle. I haven’t left the classroom or my study for the past sixteen years, since I got my doctorates, no matter how much my sister has tried to force and blackmail me.”

Under the table, Erik’s foot brushes against his while he sends Charles a wave of warmth.

The morning is spent eating the fruits set out on the table, each of the Lehnsherrs uttering a blessing at the start. Edie explains that, as this is the first time in the season, they are tasting these fruits, they are thanking god for sustaining them and enabling them to reach that occasion, a blessing called the Shehecheyanu that can be recited on joyous occasions. Charles thinks it’s an absolutely lovely tradition and sentiment, and clearly so does Erik, even though Charles knows for a fact that, like Charles, he hasn’t really believed in a higher power since he was a child.

Once they’re all finished eating, they all pull their coats back on and pile into the backyard. There Wanda uses her telekinesis to lift a small sapling into a hole already dug in the yard, halfway between Edie’s house and the yard connected to the one next door, which Charles assumes is Anya’s. After Wanda is done placing the tree, Pietro picks up a shovel and the next Charles sees the hole is filled, Pietro leaning casually on the tool. Charles smiles to have seen this casual display of the twins’ powers.

With everything that needs to be done for the holiday finished, Edie leads the way back into the living room and insists that Erik and Charles stay for a while, spend some time with the family. Charles can’t even imagine deny her request; he already feels so warm from being around such a happy family. It’s all he and Raven ever dreamt of having while growing up, and now it seems like he has it, at least tangentially, through his friendship with Erik.

“Over here,” Raven calls from across the bar, waving Charles over from their usual booth. A strange look passes over her face when she notices Erik trailing behind him.

“Hello, love,” Charles says as he and Raven embrace before they slide into opposite sides of the booth, Charles pulling off his scarf and coat.

“Hey, Raven,” Erik greets, still standing.

She smiles up at him. “Evening, Erik. Not gonna take a seat?”

He smiles back. “Thought I’d grab the first round. What would you like to start with?”

Humming in thought with her head cocked, Raven decides, “A vodka cranberry, please.”

Erik nods and then turns to Charles. “Charles?”

“Why don’t you surprise me?” Charles responds with a smirk.

Eyebrows raised, Erik smirks back. “Feeling brave tonight, Schatz?” he jokes. Whenever Charles lets him pick the drinks, Erik likes to pick the strongest, nastiest concoction he can think of to see how much Charles will drink before giving up. Suffice it to say, Charles doesn’t let Erik pick his drink for him very often.

Charles just winks in response, making Erik chuckle as he heads up to the bar, hands in his coat pockets. The cut of this jacket is divine, offering Charles the perfect view of Erik’s pert arse as he walks away.

Across from him, Raven clears her throat.

“What?” Charles asks distractedly before looking back over to see his sister watching him, eyebrow raised and smirk firmly in place, her chin resting in her hand. “Why’re you looking at me like that?”

“Decided to bring Erik to sibling night, huh?” she asks leadingly.

Puzzled by her tone, Charles’ brow furrows. “That’s all right, isn’t it?”

“Sure, sure,” Raven says dismissively, waving her hand. “I just think it’s interesting, considering the only person I’ve ever brought is Emma, and even then it wasn’t until we had been dating for six months.”

Brow furrowing further, Charles shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t see where you’re going with this, Raven.”

Raven snorts and shakes her head, sitting back in her seat. “You really are so stupidly thick when it comes to relationships.”

Jerking back and sitting up straighter, Charles says, “Relationships? What –”

Before he can find out what Raven is saying, Erik finally returns with the drinks, setting Raven’s down in front of her before sliding in close next to Charles. He takes a drink from what looks to be his favorite German lager, while Charles cautiously takes a sip of his own drink.

“A Manhattan?” Charles asks after swallowing, eyebrows lifted. “Going easy on me tonight, darling?”

Erik smirks. “Just prepping you for later,” he answers with a wink, all the while sending an image of him fucking into Charles from behind, his fingers digging bruises into Charles’ hips while Charles grips the headboard, head thrown back and moaning wantonly.

_That better be a promise_, Charles sends back, mental voice husky as he fights back a full body shiver, his cock twitching in his jeans.

Underneath the table, Raven kicks him. “You two are disgusting. Shouldn’t you be out of your honeymoon phase by now? It’s been, what, four, five months?”

“Five months,” Erik answers, after taking another swallow of his beer.

“H-hon-honey… moon…” Charles starts to say, his brow furrowed again, before he trails off, coming to a realization as Erik’s hand squeezes his on the table between them. His heart races as memories of the past five months flash through his mind. As his mouth slowly gapes further and further open, Erik’s amusement at his thickness floods him even as Erik and Raven continue talking about something or other.

Finally, Charles is able to speak again. “You knew!” Charles accuses Erik, turning and punching him in the arm, hard. “How could you not say anything, you arse?”

Grunting at the impact, Erik laughs as he rubs his bicep. “I was waiting to see just how long it would take you to notice on your own. Apparently, you’re not as observant as I thought you were.”

“You know how clueless I am when it comes to relationships!” Charles exclaims, throwing his hands in the air, while across from them Raven is dying of laughter.

Erik wraps an arm around his shoulders and pulls him close, placing a kiss in his hair. “You’re ridiculous.”

Charles grumbles as he leans into the embrace, know having a word for the sensation he feels whenever Erik does sweet things like this.

On the other side of the booth, Raven smiles softly from them, radiating happiness at her big brother finally finding someone that can keep up with him.

Later that night, Charles stops in the middle of brushing his teeth.

“I’ve moved in with you too, haven’t I?”

After spitting into the sink and rinsing off his own toothbrush, Erik kisses the side of his head again before leaving the bathroom. “You’re lucky you’re so pretty,” he calls from the bedroom, getting under the covers.

Warmth floods through Charles as he finishes up in the bathroom. Crawling under the covers next to Erik, Charles curls into his side, laying his head on Erik’s shoulder. “I love you,” he murmurs into the fabric of Erik’s shirt.

Chuckling beneath him, Erik squeezes his arm around Charles and kisses the top of his head, pure happiness radiating into Charles. “I love you too, Schatz.”

**Author's Note:**

> Come talk more Cherik with me!
> 
> sarcasmfox.tumblr.com


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